Due to the natural beauty, durability and uniform resilience of hardwood flooring, it is routinely used in applications as diverse as upscale residential and commercial spaces to auditorium stages, dance floors and athletic surfaces. Gyms and sports arenas for basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, ballroom dance, racquetball, squash, etc., typically employ flooring systems comprised of hardwoods.
Traditionally, such hardwood floors have been constructed of one or more layers of wood strips or squares placed in a desired arrangement over a base material such as concrete, asphalt or another wood floor surface. The strips or squares can be fitted together in one of several ways. A common method employed is to secure the wood components using a tongue and groove mechanism. According to this method, the strips or squares of wood are milled or otherwise constructed to have alternating tongues and grooves such that when they are laid along side one another, they fit together. Depending upon the system, the floor components can be further secured through adhesives, nails and the like.
One problem associated with all flooring systems including wood is the negative effects of water and moisture. Since woods naturally absorb moisture, the wood flooring components expand in response to exposure to moisture and contract when such moisture is eliminated, invariably warping, buckling or otherwise deforming the system. Even a small amount of exposure to moisture in an isolated area of the flooring system can severely damage the integrity of the entire system since the components are typically linked in some manner. The horizontal and vertical stresses introduced by exposure to or removal of moisture are communicated through the flooring system, often resulting in widespread damage.
Accordingly, wood flooring systems employing protective coatings, air flow systems, drain channels, etc., have been developed to combat the above-identified damage from moisture. Unfortunately, a number of disadvantages exist with these prior art attempts, resulting in only a modicum of success at reducing such damage. For example, while systems including a drain channel are capable of rapidly removing a large amount of water from the flooring system, for example in a flooding situation, even small amounts and minimal length of exposure to such small amounts of water can result in severe damage. Indeed, just the humidity ever-present in the air in most geographical areas can result in the above-identified moisture damage.
Likewise, systems including protective coatings for the wood components often compromise the natural and desired characteristics of the wood and greatly increase the expense of the flooring system. Systems including an air-flow system are complicated and expensive to manufacture, install and maintain.
Recently, flooring systems including a "free-floating" support layer or layers of wood have been used in an effort to reduce moisture damage. The theory behind these flooring systems is that if the support layer is not rigidly secured to the upper layer (i.e., the upper layer "floats" over the support layer), stresses experienced by the support layer are not as likely to be communicated to the upper layer and thus damage to the upper layer will be reduced. An example of such a flooring system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,210 to Niese. While these systems are partially successful in reducing the damage the upper floor layer will ultimately sustain, the upper layer still is subject to some moisture damage and the support layer remains completely subject to the destructive forces of moisture damage. As moisture damage occurs over and over again over time, there is a tendency for the support layer to have a greater and greater damaging effect on the upper layer. Accordingly, these flooring systems tend only to prolong the time it takes for moisture damage to appear in the upper layer of the floor.
Thus the need remains for a flooring system having the desired characteristics of hardwood components as well as an effective, inexpensive and practical way in which to permanently avoid the damage associated with moisture.